🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Want to own an island?: Off the west coast of Scotland is an island for sale for $3.1 million!

Hey there! Welcome back to the now-late June edition of Ticket To Awesome. Make the most of travel opportunities that present itself or better yet, go out and make it happen because you never know when something'll happen that'll prevent you from going.

Here's what's up this month!

• 🛫 Off-season travel
• 🩼 Newfoundland thanks to some serious rehab
• 😴 How are you with jet lag?

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🛫 Off-Season Travel Ideas

Over-tourism is undeniably a hot topic right now. With places like Venice starting to charge an entry fee for day-trippers from April 25 - July 14, a convenience store putting up a barrier to prevent people from taking photos of Mt. Fuji, and so many other destinations struggling with over-tourism, we need to travel differently.

In talking to many tourism boards, the goal is to spread travel to the low/shoulder season and to get people to go beyond the big cities. With that, here are 5 places that we think are worthy of your consideration.

1) Cape Town

As a Northern Hemisphere-er (if that's a word), we take for granted that summer is summer and winter is winter but we often forget that it's the inverse in the south.

So when it's hot from June - September, why not go somewhere that's traditionally considered to be low season because it's the winter?

While it is certainly colder and rainier, places like Cape Town experience barely any crowds. Also, July and August are peak whale watching season so there's that 😉

PRO TIP: Make sure you don't go during Table Mountain's annual winter closure that's usually the last 2 weeks of July.

2) Hong Kong

Last year, I got a chance to visit Hong Kong in late November and loved it. For most of the year, it's insanely hot but a few times of the year during shoulder season, the climate is just perfect.

Consider coming here in March-April and October-November when it's sunny and cool as opposed to hot and humid.

3) Hokkaido

Everyone and their mother seems to be going to Japan right now. The big part of it is that the yen is incredibly favourable, meaning that your spending power is high 📈, making a trip to Japan very low.

The problem is, everyone that goes to Japan is focused on the Golden Route which consists of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, Mt. Fuji, and Hakone. I experienced first hand last year, how insanely busy it was.

I then had a chance to visit Hokkaido and it was remarkable how it was a much more pleasant travel experience there, whether it was in the capital of Sapporo, renting a car to explore the flower fields, or going to the far east to see brown bears and whales.

For anyone going to Japan, I highly encourage you to go outside of the Golden Route where you're honestly going to bump into fewer tourists, and ultimately have a more authentic Japanese experience.

4) Chile

3 years ago, I was able to travel through Chile in their shoulder season of September and October as they were transitioning from winter to summer.

Yes, we experienced some chillier weather but honestly enjoyed the entire country that had such contrasting experiences going from the mountainous and rugged Patagonia to the dry and desolate Atacama Desert, and the wondrous Easter Island.

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5) Ireland

All of Europe goes into over-drive in the summer but one of our most memorable trips was during the shoulder season in Ireland.

It's one of the best road-trip destinations. We picked up our rental car in Dublin and just started driving the southern portion of the country. Sure, it was a bit breezy in June but it was before the really large tour groups started picking up and we had a lot of places to ourselves.

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💰 This Months Travel Deals

We've got a bunch of outstanding travel deals that you'll want to take advantage of. Remember, we have our deals group on Facebook. Join if you haven't yet

• KnowRoaming: Want to try a different eSIM provider? They are offering 10% off with the code GAP10 that's good for any purchases and repeated uses. If you're headed to France, they are offering 20% off with code OLYMPICS20 (ends Aug 11, 2024).
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• Expedia & Hotels.com: From June 18 - July 14, Expedia is running a sale where you'll get at least 25% off thousands of hotels on Expedia and Hotels.com if you're a member. The trips need to be between June 18 - Oct 31 to qualify.
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  Marriott:Summer Flash Sale! Marriott Bonvoy Members can save 20% off at over 5,000+ participating properties. The sale will run June 5 - 9, 2024 for stays between June 10 - July 7, 2024. Non-Members will save 15% off.
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• All Trails:Save 50% off AllTrails+ in US and Canada. Promo valid from June 28 - July 5, 2024.
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• REI: Don’t miss out on these epic deals on the best summer gear—plus, up to 40% off clearance. Promotion runs until July 4, 2024.
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• Grovemade: Save 30% off their classic designs that are going to be retired soon by using code EXTRA10. Sale ends June 30, 2024.
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• Airalo: Use the code NEWTOAIRALO15 and new customers get an additional 15% discount on all Airalo eSIMs. For existing customers, use AIRALOESIM10 to save an additional 10%. Starts July 1 and ends December 31, 2024.
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• Mountain Hardwear: 65% off select apparel with coupon code MHW65OFF. Expires July 7, 2024.
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• G Adventures:20% off Africa and the Americas. For US clients, it's good for travel by Oct 31, 2024. For Canadian clients, it's good for travel by Dec 14, 2024. In Europe, it's actually 25% off and good for travel by October 31, 2024.
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• Klook: Save 15% off USA and Europe for a limited time. Use code SHANTAYYOUSTAY15 to get 15% off all experiences in the USA. Use code SASHAYAWAY15 to get 15% off all experiences in Europe. Both require a minimum spend of $100 and only available to residents of United States, Canada, and Mexico. Expires July 15, 2024.

Remember, we update our Going Awesome Places Deals page often so make sure you bookmark it. Also, if you want to know about deals right when they come out, join our secret FB group.

✏️What's New on the Site

June has been a bit of a slow month with the travel to Newfoundland and news of the upcoming surgery but we do have new content on Instagram that you can check out!

• ​How to spend a day in Scarborough​
• ​Puffins all day long in tour from St. John's, Newfoundland​
• ​Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne National Park​
• ​A look at the TMAC Conference in St. John's​

☝️ What's Next at Going Awesome Places

This month was quite the adventure. As you saw in last month's issue, I got into a bit of a whoopsies covering COD Major III in Toronto. Thanks to some serious physio, I was able to get back to walking again. That's what allowed me to still make it out to Newfoundland for the Travel Media Association of Canada's Conference in St. John's and travel out to Gros Morne National Park as well.

July is going to be a true test. With surgery scheduled for July 9, I had to scrap most of my summer plans, including speaking at TBEX in Puerto Rico. Surgery will knock me back to square one but hoping the road to recovery will smooth.

I'll be immobile for part of the month but my goal is to work on all of the footage I captured in Newfoundland so look out for that video!

📅 This Month in Travel

Perfect summer weekend trips

We all get itchy feet in the summer and want to travel and explore, but how to satisfy the urge if you are short on vacation days? Weekend trips are the perfect solution to your wanderlust. Here's some of our favorites!

• ​Baltimore: Visit the home of naval history, stop by the White House, or step back in time at Americas first seaside holiday destination. Best yet, all our trip suggestions are budget friendly!
• ​New York City: Strolling around the Big Apple, grabbing a slice, passing an afternoon in Central Park. NYC is the perfect weekend escape with loads you can pack in to a few days.
• ​Vancouver: There are so many cute towns, mountain resorts and lakes just a short distance from Vancouver, making it the perfect weekend destination. The summer weather is also an amazing time to explore with nature coming to life before Canadian winters kick in later in the year.
• ​San Francisco: Get out of the city and explore the Bay Area for the weekend. See towering redwoods, try scuba diving, hike stunning trails, or go wine tasting in one of the worlds most famous wine regions.
• ​Philadelphia: Just a short from drive from the city is a different world. Visit Newport and experience a taste of life in the Golden Age, or revive your High School history knowledge by visiting Gettysburg. If that isn't for you there is stunning sleepy towns surrounded by nature just waiting for your weekend escape.

Travel news

Here's the latest from the industry with a few articles that we think you'll enjoy.

• ​What is the future of travel? - A thoughtful analysis by consulting group McKinsey & Company. Where do you think the industry is headed with your experiences these past few years?
• ​What's the hot European destination? - Visiting Europe is on many travel bucket lists, but where is the current hottest place to go?
• ​Japan's surge of tourism - We talked about this earlier but here's an article that puts into perspective, what Japan is experiencing.
• ​Would you work from Disney World? - This Orlando local takes full advantage of working remotely and having an annual pass for Disney World. Would you do it?
• ​Lost luggage ends up in homeless encampment - This made the news this month where a woman lost her luggage at Hollywood Burbank Airport and thanks to the AirTag she had inside, they were able to locate it. Do you travel with an Apple AirTag?
• ​Clipping nails on flight - Have you ever seen this on your flight? Gross right? Check out @passengershaming's video and let us know what you'd do if saw this happen.

Isn't jet lag THE WORST?

Jet lag sucks. For me, it always hits when going to Asia. Last year when going to Far East Hokkaido, I kept waking up randomly early in the morning and needing to force myself to sleep another few hours. For that first week, I just felt totally off.

Everyone's different and it depends on the hours difference you're dealing with. As a baseline though, I always make sure:

• Sleep on the plane - The movie FOMO is real but make sure you sleep. Melatonin and a good neck pillow are key.
• Power through the day - It's going to suck but try your best to survive the day. It helps to line the day with something that'll kick up your adrenaline (think a cooking class or tree-top trekking).
• Take advantage of waking up early - This happens mostly when flipping time zones (i.e. North America to Asia). If you know you're going to be up early at the beginning, that's the best time to do something like the Toyosu Fish Market in Tokyo.

Those are just a few things but what are your proven tricks to get through jet lag?

June went by in a flash! With summer in full swing for those in the northern hemisphere, we hope you have a fun one!!
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July's going to be a month of recovery but I'm going to make the most of it. See ya'll next month!

Will Tang
​Chief of Awesome, Going Awesome Places

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